(1) Composting works. Even if you've had a compost bin for ten years and never gotten a thing out of it, if there's a spot on the deck where leaves collect, and where they ... perhaps ... have not been cleaned up in a few years, you will find some wonderful rich dirt as the bottom layer if you ever do clean them up.

(2) If you're mowing the fallen leaves, mulching them in place as it were, it _is_ possible to run across (heh) a collection of leaves so massive that it will choke the mower and prevent it from starting until you have cleared the blade.

Yep. Mowers are treacherous beasts. It's only dumb luck that I'm not missing a good portion of my right foot to one. Back when I was a teenager I was working for a temp agency and they sent me out to do a bit of mowing. I was using a self-propelled push mower and while going uphill I hit a shady spot where the dew hadn't evaporated. The wheels lost traction, I lost my footing and the mower dropped down over my right foot.

*wham* *wham* *wham*

Releasing the handle killed the engine as it should have, but the blades had enough energy left to smack my foot hard and rip the top of my shoe off. Bruised the hell out of me, but it didn't even break the skin. Pure dumb luck.

*g* it's an electric and to make it completely safe I'd probably need to remove the battery, which I *hangs head in shame* don't even know how to do. But I am a tool using monkey, and there is no shortage of sticks in my neck of the woods.

I use the mulching option on my mower more out of laziness than eco-awareness. Leaves, grass, whatever, it all seems to work nicely. Granted, my yard isn't exactly a paragon of suburban beauty. I'm pretty sure that if I spread Weed & Feed across my yard it would vanish entirely.